A Nottinghamshire welding firm has been prosecuted for safety failings after a worker was seriously injured when he plunged from a barn roof onto a grain bucket.

Mansfield magistrates heard the labourer, who does not wish to be identified, was replacing cement roof sheets on an outbuilding at Clipstone Park Farm, Cavendish Lodge, Mansfield, on 20 November 2008 when he fell four to five metres onto the bucket below.

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An employee of IFT Services Ltd, Victoria Street, Shirebrook, he suffered five broken vertebrae, a fractured skull and internal bleeding. He has since left the company.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed the employee had been working from a cage attached to a telehandler but had climbed out onto a scaffold board to continue removing nails from old panels.

There was nothing in place to prevent a fall.

IFT Services Ltd admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in relation to the incident.

The company was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000.

(CD/GK)